Community Journalism brings Tuberculosis Clinic to a Mumbai Slum

Amol Lalzare is an auto-rickshaw driver and a community journalist from Mumbai. He documents life and struggles of the marginalised communities in the maximum city. Amol Lalzare balances life as an auto-rickshaw driver and a community journalist who is documenting life and struggles of the marginalised communities in Mumbai, the financial capital of India. Previously a camera person in Bollywood, Amol found that the film world does provide for survival, but not enough for the mind. “We were just puppets for directors who worked long working hours, in the background.” Having learned the aesthetics of film-making from the largest film…

A community member fights to get proper medical access for Kavita, a Tuberculosis patient in Mumbai

Just walking a few steps would leave Kavita Madhukar Patole gasping for air. So how was the teenager to walk five kilometres twice a week from her home in a Mumbai slum in Sathe Nagar to the government health centre in Govandito get her drugs? Kavita had been suffering from tuberculosis for three years and had reached a critical stage.

Eighteen-year-old Kavita from Sathe Nagar in Mumbai had been suffering from tuberculosis for three years. The government provides free drugs to tuberculosis sufferers, as long as they show up in person. At first, the five-kilometer trek wasn’t a problem for the girl. But as she declined, frequent hospitalisations and the long commute took a financial toll on her and her family. In all Rs 1.5 lakh rupees (USD 2240) was spent on her treatment in the three years since she was diagnosed.

Seeing Kavita’s distress at being forced to walk this distance as her lungs fill with fluid, slowly drowning the emaciated girl, Community Correspondent Amol Lalzare made a video story on Kavita and screened it for the local municipal councillor. As a result, a tuberculosis clinic opened in Kavita’s locality. Kavita was a beneficiary of this as were many in her community. Unfortunately for Kavita, she did not make a full recovery and passed away six months after the clinic opened due to the advanced stage of the disease. But her community can now access tuberculosis treatment and many more lives are being saved.

Even where policies are in place, healthcare delivery to patients, especially in slums, remains a major challenge in India. Stories like that of Kavita get lost in the din of competing statistics and data. With a 1000 people dying every day due to a disease that is treatable in its early stages, the government has a lot to answer for.

Video by Amol Lalzare | Article by Madhura Chakraborty

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